A Different Way of Looking at NAU Impact

With graduation weekend just behind us, we read with interest a report from Northern Arizona University that included some unique statistics about NAU’s positive impact in the community.

Typically when we get these reports, the takeaways are the overarching, big figures. And this report does include that information: $2.6 billion generated each year for the state’s economy; 24,000 jobs supported by NAU; student enrollment at the multitude of their campuses around the state that just passed the 31,000 mark this past fall.

But what caught my eye were the off-the-beaten-track aspects of NAU’s role in our community, including a few numbers that might challenge presumptions people have about NAU and its students.

Such as where all those students are. According to this report, more than 25 percent of NAU’s students are not in Flagstaff. One in four are attending NAU at one of 20-plus locations outside of the Flagstaff Mountain campus, or getting their education online.

Perhaps the most interesting statistics have to do with NAU’s impact in our local healthcare:

• 2,000 clinical hours are contributed annually by more than 300 NAU nursing students through a partnership between the university and Northern Arizona Healthcare;
• 6,000 children receive healthcare screenings through NAU programs and initiatives;
• the NAU Dental Hygiene Clinic serves more than 4,000 patients on a sliding-scale fee basis.

Student volunteerism is another facet of NAU that we usually don’t think about – or have numbers to measure. But this report shows that in one academic year, students racked up more than 20,000 hours of community service. Meanwhile, College of Education students gave more than 100,000 hours to local K12 classrooms through their student teaching and practicum requirements.

The university impacts our local culture as well, with more than 400 performance arts events were held in the past academic year.

I highly recommend checking out this brief report on some of the more unique statistics about our university. You can grab a copy of it here.